Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Shane Van Gisbergen Will Race Full-Time Cup For Trackhouse in 2025!

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Shane Van Gisbergen Will Race Full-Time Cup For Trackhouse in 2025! · Kenny Wallace Media

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  Yeah, it's a great day for the company obviously being able to
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  announce that we're expanding to 1/3 full time Cup series entry
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  in 2025. And most exciting thing for me
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  about it is that we're able to announce that Shane van Gibbs
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  Bergen is going to be a full time driver in the Cup series
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  for us next year at track House as we expand from two cars to
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  three. And and, you know, these are
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  these moments are, are always special, especially since, you
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  know, 48 months ago this was a Tennessee limited liability
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  company with $500 in the bank and sort of an idea and me and
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  Ty are trying to figure out how to do it.
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  So, you know, for us to come in as A1 car team in 2021, you
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  know, make the acquisition of Ganassi, expand to two teams,
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  win, you know, seven races in the next, you know, 2 1/2 years
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  after that. And then, you know, have some
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  great, great partners come on and just sort of continue this
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  amazing, amazing journey of building a great company here.
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  This is obviously a huge moment. So really, really thrilled and
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  excited that that Shane, you know, put the trust in US and,
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  and, you know, made a huge commitment in, in leaving a very
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  successful career in Australia, New Zealand and move to a new
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  country and sort of start over and put his, his faith and his
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  trust in US means means a lot to us.
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  And he's put in a tremendous amount of work.
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  Great, great human being, very, very talented race car driver
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  and somebody with an incredibly, incredibly bright future.
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  So we're we're very excited to have them here.
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  It's also kind of unique about this is that this is a this is a
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  neat moment for, for Project 91. I mean, you know, Project 91
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  was, you know, it was a program to bring incredible talent from
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  around the world to the NASCAR Cup Series and see if we could
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  do something special with it. And obviously, you know, with
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  Shane going to Chicago and and, you know, being the first, first
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  winner in 60 years on on debut in project 91.
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  And then, you know, make the move over, make the commitment
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  to Xfinity series this year in a bunch of cup races and then be
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  able to turn that into a full time Cup series ride in in 2025
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  is just a really cool moment in the story of of project 91.
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  So we're we're very excited. We're thrilled that he's he's
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  accepted the offer and made the commitment and looking for big
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  things in 2025. S over to you my friend.
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  Yeah, thank you Yeah, afternoon everyone.
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  It's it's been pretty, pretty awesome 18 months, I guess now
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  and yeah, it's been a huge life changes as Justin said and yeah,
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  everything he said was going to happen as has happened.
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  So, yeah, I'd never never thought it would happen this
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  quick and I'm I'm very glad we've done, done the learning.
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  Learning, yeah, this year and Xfinity, call it racing being
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  great to work with and, and then also a lot more races to finish
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  the year now, but it's been a huge learning experience.
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  But just excited to get full time in the Cup series next year
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  and working with track house and how fun that's been this year.
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  The way everyone goes racing, the attitude in the place and it
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  just resonates from the top with with Justin and and Ty, the
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  leadership there. It's yeah, you just feel it
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  through the place. It's a really cool team to be a
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  part of and yeah, hugely excited about it.
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  Got a lot of work to do and you know, it's, it's not going to be
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  easy that for that's for sure. But I'll, I'll keep pushing and
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  yeah, hopefully fit in pretty good next year.
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  Can't wait. Justin, just a couple of things
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  that have come over, come across in the last maybe even 30 days
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  is talk a little bit about as you look at Track House
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  Entertainment Group now and you look at all the different
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  regions of the world that are now represented under that
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  banner. Yeah.
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  I mean, that's, that's definitely, you know, an element
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  to the story here. That's that's we take a lot of
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  pride in. I mean, you know, we have we're
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  going to be full time cup racing next year with three cars with
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  drivers are born in three different countries, which I
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  think is a pretty amazing thing for this sport.
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  It's amazing thing for for where Motorsports is today.
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  And, and, you know, we're we're thrilled and honored to be
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  stewards of, of, you know, international diversity, the
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  top, top level of of Motorsports.
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  I mean, I've said this a couple Times Now, you know, with Moto
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  GP and our Moto GP lineup next year, in our Cup series lineup
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  next year, track house has a roster of athletes that
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  represent Mexico, New Zealand, the USA, Spain and Japan, which
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  is which is a pretty incredible thing for for a Motorsports
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  company. And we take take a lot of pride
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  in that. So, you know, we just continue
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  to tell, tell a great story, you know, try to get really great
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  people in the house with, with diverse backgrounds, great
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  stories to tell, compelling personalities and the end of the
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  day, just really, really dedicated hard workers.
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  Yeah, Shane, for you just coming over here and then and you,
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  you're racing against people you've never met before.
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  And I remember when we were in Chicago, you were trying to read
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  the names on the back of the windows just to remember you
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  said who you're trying to race in that corner.
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  You talk about a year later now that you've been around these
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  guys and how much you've learned, and also some of the
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  respect that you see between you yourself and some of these other
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  drivers. It goes both ways.
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  Didn't you have to Google me when Justin brought my name up?
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  Yeah, it's fanatically. Yeah.
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  It's, you know, it's a, it's a different world and it's, you
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  know, you're still car racing, but it's a completely different
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  sport. And yeah, as I said, learning so
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  much this year and got two recent examples of people I
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  guess come through Marcus Ambrose and and Juan Pablo,
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  similar backgrounds and one did you know, three or four races in
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  Xfinity and then full time into cop and Marcus took it the slow
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  route. So we're kind of in between.
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  And I think the way we've done this is the right way with all
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  the processes. And even though the Xfinity car
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  is very, very different to a cop car, I think it was 100% worth
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  it learning all the tracks, all the places, the terminology
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  metric versus imperial. That's been tough, but it is,
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  you know, it's, it's a massive learning error.
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  And yeah, but just I just got to keep building on it and and keep
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  improving every week and had a little kind of set back, I guess
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  in, in Xfinity, losing our crew chief.
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  But you know, we got to get that momentum built up and I'm still
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  fully focused on getting a great result in the playoffs and, and
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  keeping that momentum into next year.
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  So yeah, it's pretty exciting times.
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  So one other element to this is as you expand the team, you have
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  to dig deep and start thinking about well, what, what's going
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  to be the number and how do you take this into the next level
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  and, and something of some relevance.
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  And so I want Shane and Justin to go over here and we're going
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  to unveil the number. So any photographers around?
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  Let me, let me, let me just say one thing about that before we
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  before we unveil the number, one of the things that's important
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  for traveling. The numbers are important.
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  Numbers are important. They're a big part of the
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  branding in the sport. Numbers represent history and
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  and they represent, you know, legions of fans and and historic
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  drivers and historic moments in the sport.
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  And I think, you know, we, we don't take our number choices
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  lightly. And you know, when we chose the
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  99 car to begin with, there was a responsibility that came with
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  that. And, and that's, you know, with
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  wins with Carl Edwards and with Jeff Burton and a lot of, a lot
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  of great drivers. Same thing with the one with
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  Kurt Busch and Jay McMurray and a bunch of drivers.
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  And, and when we think about, when we think about the numbers
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  and we think about our history and the number, it's important
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  for us to honor that history. And it's important for us to add
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  to the winning legacy of of that number, which we've done with
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  the one and we've done with the 99, we intend to do with the new
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  one. Those who can't see it, it's the
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  88 that's for the for those of you in the press box.
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  So, you know, Justin, do you want to tell a little bit about
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  the process of this? You know, haven't, you know,
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  wanting, wanting to do the right thing and talking to the
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  Hendrick group, talking to Jeff Gordon, talking to to the
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  Earnhardt. Yeah.
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  I mean, when we, you know, I called Carl Edwards when, you
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  know, in the end of 2020 and I said, we're starting this Cup
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  team, we want to run the 99 number.
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  And I want to, you know, tell you that we're doing this and,
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  and obviously get your endorsement of it and get your
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  support for it. And we did the same with the
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  one. And, and we've done it with,
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  with the, with the 88 talking to, to the folks at Hendrick
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  and, and to Dale Junior, who I was just texting an hour and a
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  half ago. And, and, you know, it's
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  important for us to, to have the endorsement, a great, great
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  exchange with Dale Junior saying like, look, it's, it's not my
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  number. I mean, it's, I added to the
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  legacy of it. I, it was, it's important to me
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  personally, But, but you know, he was, he was proud to see it
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  in good hands. And that's just something that's
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  that's super, super important to me into this company.
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  I got a phone call from Jeff Gordon one day and he says, you
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  talked to me about it, Marshall about it.
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  I know you talked to Dale Junior.
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  Have you talked to Kelly yet? Kelly Earnhardt?
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  I went no. And he goes, she's the boss,
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  call her now. And so I want to thank Dale
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  Junior and Kelly for, for letting us and, and, and there's
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  just some amazing drivers attached to that number.
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  And so it, it is a lot of responsibility and, and we, we
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  certainly accept that. So we're going to open it up to
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  some questions here for the next 5 or 10 minutes.
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  Greg Engel, Forbes, too quick. What was the trigger that all of
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  a sudden said we need to do this?
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  Did you have a goal, you know, like last year and say, if we
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  get to the certain point, we'll go to the third team?
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  Or was there just a trigger that says, yeah, now this time's
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  right? Well, I've always thought that,
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  you know, three teams is a really strong number of teams to
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  have in this sport. I think that, you know, it, you
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  know, just gives you 33% more of an opportunity on the race track
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  every weekend. And you know, frankly it's,
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  it's, you know, four car teams are reserved for really, really,
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  really big companies in this sport.
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  And it's tough to make four cars work.
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  And, and so I think 3 was kind of, you know, always, always
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  sort of the number for us from day one.
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  If things kind of went our way and we could grow from one car
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  to two, that that three was three was kind of the goal.
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  And then, you know, an opportunity came up to build,
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  expand to a third car for this year.
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  And so we took it. Thank you and Shane for you.
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  Good on you. Now the pressure is because now
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  you're there, right? This is what you when you won
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  back in Chicago, you said that this was your ultimate goal.
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  Next year it's going to be your your full time cup driver
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  pressure. Do you feel pressure?
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  Are you motivated, excited, happy, kind of anxious?
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  What? All of the above, yeah.
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  But that's why we do it, you know, Learnt those feelings are
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  are good things because it means you care so much about it,
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  right? So all this year I've been
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  nervous getting in the car, anxious.
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  How's it going to go? How am I going to be?
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  And that's a awesome feeling and something I haven't had for a
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  few years. So it's been really cool to be
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  energized like that. And of course there's going to
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  be pressure. You know, the Cup series is
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  pretty cutthroat as we've seen, you know, a lot of guys, it's
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  it's pretty hard to make it. So yeah, I just got to keep
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  learning, doing the best I can and and I'll be fine.
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  One more element that is always important to a team is who's
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  going to who's going to lead it. And we're very, very fortunate
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  to announce and it's in the release as well.
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  It's Steven Doran who's here today, is going to be the crew
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  chief on the number 88 track House Century next year.
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  So great history champion in his own right.
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  And you know, we walk into Daytona 500, we come back here
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  next year, we'll have three drivers starting that race who
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  won NASCAR Cup Series races. And so, you know, you feel
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  pretty good about your chances coming in.
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  So we're going to go to Bob, who is raising his hand, then Jordan
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  in the Mecca League. Bob Packers for sports, Fox
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  Sports first. Justin, can you confirm where
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  you're getting the charter from? What would you guess?
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  I would guess Stewart. House racing probably probably
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  not a bad answer. OK.
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  And can you talk about the decision or what was an easy
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  decision? You know you had more drivers
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  than you had spots, so you had to announce yesterday that you
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  released Zane. So take me through maybe
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  decision, keep Shane and. Well, I mean, I, I think when we
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  decide the drivers, it's a, it's a big picture and we cast a wide
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  net of of sort of qualifications and, and it's, you know, it's
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  like, you know, we just, it's commercial support, it's fit in
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  the company's personality, all of that.
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  And, and you know, it's, we can't, we don't have four cars,
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  we have 3. So we had, we have to make a
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  decision. We're we're excited about the
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  decision that we made with with SVG.
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  So actually Chris Knight has a question from the press box they
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  asked me to read. So with all your endeavors and
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  connections and other Motorsports arena, is there a
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  concentration on where you'll find the next driver to
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  potentially bring the NASCAR? Concentrate like from a.
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  I'm asking you like you asked the question.
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  Let. Me rephrase it with all of your
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  experiences and other things that you created out across the
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  world. Now the why the the net is
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  extremely wide. Is there like a is there a
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  target? I guess is I think it's the
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  question that Chris is asking about where you look at look for
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  drivers these days, not just in the Xfinity.
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  Yeah, I don't, I don't think we're in the driver looking
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  business really right now for a while.
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  I mean, we're we're excited with Ross, we're excited with Daniel,
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  we're excited with SVG, really excited about re signing Raul
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  Fernandez and and bringing the young IO Guerra from Tokyo Japan
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  into the Moto GP thing. And then we've got an amazing
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  talent who's going to be racing next year full time, the Xfinity
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  series in the in Connor Zillich. So we've we've got, I think
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  we're in, we're in a pretty good spot right now.
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  I mean, I think we, you know, as the, as the business expands and
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  you know, we're able to expand to the third team and, and, you
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  know, have these opportunities, Obviously it was important to
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  make sure we, we, we put an emphasis on putting ourselves in
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  the best position to get the, you know, the best talent in the
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  house. So I think that we've, you know,
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  we've done that and now we can focus on what we've got and just
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  try to go win races. Jordan.
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  Jordan Bianchi, The Athletic kind of following up on Bob's
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  question, can you give a, a number, an exact number or at
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  least a ballpark number and what you paid for the charter?
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  No. And incurring negotiations with
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  the charter agreement and everything there's there's been
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  someday about debate on whether to continue invest in teams.
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  Why inquire third charter until? Why not wait to acquire until
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  third charter until the negotiations?
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  Are final well, because I don't I don't really have any stress
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  at all about the fact that the charter system is going to
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  continue. I mean, I don't I don't really
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  think that that's a risk. And when there's an opportunity,
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  you know, to to make a move into into been to expand and you
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  know, there's been a lot of great commercial support around
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  this program that we'll announce later on this season.
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  I mean, there's just a lot of things falling in line.
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  We had to take advantage of of the that opportunity when it was
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  here and before we lost it. So it wasn't really that
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  difficult of a decision. I mean, you know, the charter
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  negotiations will continue. Those conversations will
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  continue to happen. I think the charter systems been
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  good for the sport and NASCAR will tell you the same thing.
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  We don't really have any stress about about that system
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  continuing. Hey Justin, Chris, Colin with
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  News Daytona Beach. So I have a little bit of a
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  two-part question #1 the news came out yesterday that Zane
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  Smith and Trackhouse are parting ways.
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  So I'd want to ask for one with did this come down to a Zane or
• 14:11
  Shane decision? No pun intended.
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  And #2 if, you know, if it didn't, what I, I was wondering
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  if you could describe what made you pick Shane for the seat over
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  some other, you know, drivers who I'm sure were in
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  consideration that, you know, maybe had a little bit more
• 14:27
  experience in NASCAR specifically.
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  Yeah, the, the way I'll answer this is that this moment right
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  now is about Shane van Gisberg. And this is an SVG moment.
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  I'm going to keep it an SVG moment.
• 14:38
  I will tell you that the, the, the reason that we chose to go
• 14:41
  with with Shane for this third car is, is that, you know, he,
• 14:46
  yeah, there's, there's not a lot of experience in the Cup series.
• 14:50
  There's some unknowns can be a lot of lot of hard work, but you
• 14:53
  know, Shane checks a lot of boxes.
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  I think for a really, really compelling story and building a
• 14:57
  great business in this sport and the fact that, you know, he's
• 14:59
  incredibly talented, he's incredibly dedicated.
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  You know, there's a reason why he was the first one to win on
• 15:04
  debut since Johnny Rutherford in 1963.
• 15:06
  It's not that that's a big thing.
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  And you know, for him to be able to, you know, obviously the
• 15:10
  Chicago Street race is kind of in his wheelhouse.
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  But I mean, the rate of adaptability of everything else,
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  just the competition, the restarts, the pit stops, the way
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  he prepared for that race, it's like, man, this is this is a
• 15:20
  superstar and this is this is somebody that we, you know, we
• 15:23
  were really excited about committing to knowing that it's,
• 15:25
  you know, it's relatively unconventional path to a Cup
• 15:27
  car, But we wouldn't be doing it if we didn't think this guy
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  could win lots and lots of cup races and be a playoff
• 15:33
  contender. So, you know, it was honestly a
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  pretty, pretty easy decision because he just checked a lot of
• 15:39
  boxes for us and everyone in the company is really excited.
• 15:41
  But. Good lady still need anything?
• 15:46
  Shane, what has been the hardest part about your learning curve?
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  Just trying to get up to speed. I mean, you come out and, you
• 15:52
  know, in your debut when and you know, you think it's all going
• 15:55
  to be pie in the sky after that. But what has really, you know,
• 15:59
  challenged you along the way? Turning left, yeah.
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  It's just, it's just there's so many variables in this racing.
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  You know, you see even Carl Lawson, who's the best driver,
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  he's first one week, 20th the next.
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  You know, there's so many variables that make the sport a
• 16:16
  thing. You know, like I'm used to being
• 16:18
  on one line, the repetition the whole time and just hitting my
• 16:21
  marks where the race can change so much over the course of the
• 16:25
  day when the weather changes, the rubber goes down or even the
• 16:28
  Super Speedway racing is completely different.
• 16:31
  So probably just the amount of variables in this racing and you
• 16:35
  know, you can prep all you want, but it's having those instincts
• 16:38
  to adapt and learning how best to do it.
• 16:40
  So every race I'm learning something.
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  And, you know, I, I seem to always start the races quite
• 16:45
  slow and you know, by stage 3, I'm, I'm on the pace kind of
• 16:48
  thing. So yeah, just every week.
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  And this time of year, going back to tracks I've been to
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  before, hopefully I can show that improvement and, and, you
• 16:56
  know, keep getting better. But yeah, as I said, every week
• 16:59
  it's I'm like a sponge trying to learn stuff and get better and
• 17:02
  better. And and do you expect to run any
• 17:05
  Xfinity races next year? Yeah, I'd hope so.
• 17:08
  Like obviously they'll be, you know, speaking with Chris and
• 17:11
  and the colic team, you know, there's opportunities to the
• 17:14
  road courses, but you know, for me that's that's easy stuff.
• 17:18
  I want to do more ovals with them and and learn in both ways.
• 17:21
  So yeah, hopefully we'll race with him next year and win some
• 17:24
  Rd. courses, but hopefully they'll let me do some ovals too
• 17:27
  and I can keep getting more experience.
• 17:30
  We have time for one more and go ahead and answer this question
• 17:34
  was right here. Sorry Dustin, we were down to 1
• 17:36
  so and he's been right here. Zachsternal@nascar.com Justin
• 17:44
  for you Project 91, you mentioned the importance of that
• 17:46
  kind of right off the top. Do you anticipate that
• 17:48
  continuing moving forward with a full three car roster or does
• 17:53
  that do you feel like that stretches the the team to fit?
• 17:56
  Well, we're having those discussions right now.
• 17:57
  I mean, I, I think that Project 91 is something that, that 100%
• 18:00
  in my mind, I'd love to love to continue.
• 18:02
  I mean, it was just, it's difficult to do it this year
• 18:04
  because we have so much on our play with, you know, sort of
• 18:06
  supporting other drivers and other programs.
• 18:08
  And, you know, it just just a lot of sort of business
• 18:10
  development stuff that we're working on.
• 18:12
  But, but we, we, you know, I would expect Project 91 to be
• 18:15
  back sooner rather than later. I think that obviously it has to
• 18:18
  fit in the workflow of the company.
• 18:19
  I mean, like we're expanding our focus is on running three
• 18:21
  competitive Cup cars next year, but there's a lot of interest in
• 18:24
  Project 91 both from drivers and and from commercial partners.
• 18:27
  So, so yeah, I would, I would 100% anticipate that to continue
• 18:31
  in some capacity. So the great thing about doing
• 18:35
  this stuff on race day is so many of you are here and a lot
• 18:38
  of attention. However, there's also a lot of
• 18:40
  other work. So we're going to start off
• 18:42
  here. We're both these guys going to
• 18:44
  head right back into the garage. We have a lot of partners here,
• 18:46
  which is really a fuel behind this company.
• 18:48
  So thank you for your time. Appreciate it.
• 18:50
  Thanks for the questions and and we'll see you guys again soon.
• 18:54
  Thank you. Thanks.